New Chancellor Cathie Black's take on value-added teacher data: It's not black and white

New Chancellor Cathie Black's take on value-added teacher data: It's not black and white

JOSHUA GREENMAN

Monday, December 13th 2010, 2:02 PM

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When incoming Schools Chancellor Cathie Black visited the Daily News editorial board last week, it was clear she was already embroiled in the first big conflict of her tenure.

It involves the Department of Education's controversial plans to release value-added data that would enable the media to rank, from first to last, thousands of teachers based on the test-score gains of their students.

But this conflict isn't unfolding via angry exchanges between Black and parent advocates or the teachers union, as you might expect. The wrestling match is happening inside Black's own head.

First, a quick primer. Last summer, the Los Angeles Times got hold of the test-score improvement statistics for more than 6,000 third- through fifth-grade teachers in that city's public school system - and put out the scores, in a searchable database, for all to see.

The local teachers union was apoplectic, insisting that this information was intended to

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/12/13/2010-12-13_new_chancellor_cathie_blacks_take_on_valueadded_teacher_data_its_not_black_and_w.html#ixzz1820yzTUC

Jose Vilson: The Magical Populism of Michelle Rhee

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Black Friday set off the sale of trinkets, capes, and magic wands, and Michelle Rhee bought a few of the latter. Before Thanksgiving, I would have pegged her for a neoliberal overbearing contessa. After the edu-world lauded Washington, DC's unseating of Mayor Adrian Fenty, and in turn Ms. Rhee, even those who didn't follow education news the way DC residents and interested thought leaders did got a glance at the former chancellor for what she really was. After essentially negotiating away DC teachers' due process or equity in their latest ratified contract, we knew she'd still find a job to do. Little did I know it'd be as the 21st century Mr. Mistoffelees.

How she's been promoted as a students first education reform is definitely a work of prestidigitation and legerdemain. She'll defy examination and deceive you again.

Take, for example, this week's cover of Newsweek where her big blurb is "I'm not done fighting." Yet, her fight looks like a back yard brawl and more like an arms race. With big media arms like

The Answer Sheet - What Norway (not Finland) tells us about schools

The Answer Sheet - What Norway (not Finland) tells us about schools

What Norway (not Finland) tells us about schools

By Valerie Strauss

This was written by Thomas Hatch, an associate professor of education and co-director of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University.

By Thomas Hatch
People often try to use findings from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s PISA international assessments of educational performance to tout particular policies or practices in which “high performing” countries seem to be engaged. Rather than a list of “do now’s” for policymakers, however, I believe that the latest PISA findings, like other forms of international comparison, provide an opportunity to reflect on the values and assumptions that underlie our educational system.

It wasn’t until I lived in Norway (with my wife and daughters in kindergarten, fourth grade and sixth grade) that I took explicit notice of

This Week In Education: Turnarounds: Reactions To The McKinley Parent Trigger

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by Alexander Russo

If early signs are any indication, the effort to fix (destroy?) McKinley Elementary is shaping up to be this month's Central Falls: a hotly debated, media-saturated free for all over how to fix struggling schools:

The Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley and David Feith (appearing on Fox) says that lawsuits are expected. Playing catch-up on a story in its own back yard, the LA Times reports that parents are rescinding their signatures (but doesn't seem to have any independent verification of its numbers). The LA

Does the DREAM Act Have 59 Votes in the Senate? « Student Activism

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Does the DREAM Act Have 59 Votes in the Senate?

by Angus Johnston

Over the weekend I’ve heard rumors from both sides of the DREAM Act debate that the bill — which would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children — is currently just one vote shy of the sixty it needs for passage in the Senate.

I’m skeptical.

The DREAM Act has garnered lots of Republican support in the past, but most of those allies have reversed themselves in recent months, as the political winds in the country — and in the GOP specifically — have shifted. With the rise of the Tea Party, many Republicans now see a vote for the bill as a potential liability in future races.

It’s not impossible that the bill could get to sixty votes during the current lame duck session, but it seems highly unlikely. And there have been no public declarations of support for the DREAM Act in recent days that would

Hechinger Report | Amid “war” on teachers unions, some administrators and union leaders still partnering for change

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Amid “war” on teachers unions, some administrators and union leaders still partnering for change

by Dana Goldstein

Chris Christie (Photo by Walter Burns)

As unlikely as it sounds, Chris Christie—the Republican governor of New Jersey who assumed office in January 2010—is a YouTube sensation. He has gained national notoriety for taking on teachers unions, in part by posting videos of his attacks on union leaders to his YouTube channel. The videos boast a combined total of over two million views.

At a town hall meeting in Robbinsville, N.J. last June, Christie was at his bluntest: “The teachers union is about the accumulation and exercise of raw power … The fight is about who is going to run public education in New Jersey—the parents and the people they elect, or the mindless, faceless union leaders who … have the money

Cathie Black Transition Blues « EdVox

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Cathie Black Transition Blues

by edvoxny

by David C. Bloomfield

There was no need for the high drama associated with Joel Klein’s resignation as New York City schools Chancellor. Every district in the country regularly faces these departures, yet it is rare for superintendents to quit or be fired mid-year, and usually when they do it is for critical health or ethical reasons. Six months notice is a minimum to allow for a methodical search and continuity through June. That neither the Mayor nor Chancellor foresaw this disruption demonstrates their misunderstanding of how schools really work.

Then there is the matter of the Mayor’s clandestine process for selecting Klein’s successor. Not only did he violate the spirit and perhaps the letter of Equal Employment Opportunity procedures, there was no public opportunity to meet the candidate, again standard fare in districts throughout the country. The usual first, softball question asked in any of these forums is about educational vision. Ms. Black has said she has none, an

We never change, do we? - Ed Thoughts

We never change, do we? - Ed Thoughts

We never change, do we?

By Sabrina on December 13, 2010 10:07 AM| 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

"The paradox of education is precisely this-- that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The purpose of education...is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself if there is a God in Heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no

Pictures of Lily | Intercepts

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Pictures of Lily

by Mike Antonucci

Over many years I’ve tried to make the point that what the teachers’ unions say to the public is not nearly as important as what they say to themselves. It is why I’ve endured 13 consecutive NEA conventions and it’s why I bring this particular speech to your attention. I would have preferred to see the election post-mortem presentation, but this will have to do. It was delivered by NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen to the National Council of State Education Associations meeting in Miami last month. The NCSEA is an umbrella group of all of NEA’s state affiliate leaders.

When I come across 39 minutes of video I rarely will take the time to sit through the whole thing. But if you’re reading this blog, you must have some interest in NEA and its view of things, and this will serve the purpose

What makes an effective teacher? | EdNews Parent

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Ask an Expert: What makes a teacher effective?

by R. Kim Herrell

Q. The new legislation (Senate Bill 10-191) is aimed at ensuring an effective teacher in every classroom in Colorado. What is an “effective teacher”?

A. The state will be setting up committees to define what effective instruction looks like, and who an effective teacher is. I happen to like the work of Dr. Jere Brophy, at Michigan State University. He and his colleagues have analyzed the best research out there on teacher effectiveness. Here is their list, and I quote:

• Supportive classroom climate: Students learn best within cohesive and caring learning communities.
• Opportunity to learn: Students learn more when most of the available time is allocated to curriculum-related activities and the classroom management system emphasizes maintaining students’ engagement